American Expedition Vehicles (AEV) is known for churning out fantastically constructed off-road overlanders that have the mouth to match their trousers and this year, AEV is celebrating its 20th anniversary, marking the occasion with an open house in the afternoon of August 18th at their headquarters in Wixom, Michigan.

Founded in a Montana barn, AEV was created by Dave Harriton, who lived and worked in a small one-bay shop while creating his first prototype stretched Wrangler. AEV has grown into a well-respected brand whose facilities now encompass over 200,000 square feet of space between two buildings in the Detroit area plus an R&D facility back in Montana, presumably where employees get to test out the fun stuff.

More recently, AEV created the Brute Double Cab (pictured above), taking a four-door Wrangler and carefully crafting a pickup truck bed onto its stern. No hack jobs here – a considerable amount of research and development went into the Brute Double Cab to ensure that it could be billed as a capable, durable truck. Arguably, demand for this truck has spurned FCA to make a factory Jeep pickup, one which we will hopefully see at the L.A. Auto Show this Fall.

Not solely a Jeep operation, AEV also turns its attention to Ram pickups, creating machines like the Prospector and Prospector XL. In particular, the Prospector XL is a Heavy Duty Ram featuring AEV’s DualSport Suspension System, increasing wheel travel while working in concert with a set of Bilstein 5100s. Those wheels? Wrapped in massive 40” Toyo Open Country M/Ts tires, naturally.

New this year is an AEV build of the lighter-duty Ram 1500, called the Recruit. By swapping out the stock steering knuckles, shock absorbers, and a few other suspension pieces for AEV units, the Recruit is built for the weekend warrior who occasionally still uses their truck in rush hour. AEV also bolts on some aggro styling cues, adding an ever tougher look to the already macho Ram. Meaty 35” BFGoodrich KO2 tires look good combined with the 20” alloy wheels and AEV’s 4”DualSport suspension system.

This year’s open house will be on August 18th from 3pm to 8pm at their Michigan HQ, found on 51960 W. Twelve Mile Drive in Wixom. They’ll be providing tours of AEV’s vehicle production areas, with more than a few of their overland-ready 4×4 beasts on display.